Returning Home
by LecterGirl32
Summary: Candy returns to Gull Cottage and the memories there.


**Author's** **Note:** This is my first story ever. I never considered myself to be a writer. So please be gentle I am trying. I do not own any of the characters in this story. Special thanks to Patti for the encouragement and applying the red pen to the mess of my rough writing. :)

**Chapter 1. Returning Home **

Candy wondered what she had been thinking when she told Jonathan she would drive up to Gull Cottage and air it out for him before he got back from his leave, Candy thought to herself

"_Come on, Candy, do this for me please!"! Said Jonathan over the phone._

"_No! Jonathan I am too busy with my work here." Said Candy_

"_You can bring your work here and it will be like a little vacation for you."" _

"_Vacation! Cleaning up your house for you! Wow, that is some vacation." _

"_Listen, Candy, the house just needs to be opened up and aired out. It is already clean. Bring your work and enjoy the peace and quiet and relax. And when I get home we will catch up. _

_Please say you will Candy!" Said Jonathan._

_Okay!_

Candy rolled her eyes.

It had been many years since Candy visited her mother's house. Her mother had died a couple of years ago and Jonathan had taken over residence there. It was just too much for Candy to handle after her mother and the Captain were gone.

Candy pulled up in front of what was now Jonathan's house. Even though it was over a hundred years old, he really kept this place in good shape. (_The captain says he wants to see the blasted house ship shape and bristle fashion_. )

Still after all this time he still couldn't disappoint the man.

She smiled to herself and shook her head as she got out of her car and headed through the front gate towards the front door.

She unlocked the front door and walked in. That old "I'm at home feeling" hit her. Faded memories of Jonathan and herself running up and down the stairs and Martha and her mother calling for them. Even scruffy, barking after them.

Candy shook her head, sat her bag down and said, "Well lets get started airing this place out."

Candy was impressed Jonathan had really kept this place up and even modernized more. It had new hardwood floors, windows, a modern kitchen with new cabinets and applicances. Oh, how Martha would have loved this room now.

In the living room Jonathan had a new big fluffy couch and recliner. Jonathan even had a big screen tv in the corner of the room. There were still nautical instruments with model boats and books all over.

Candy shook her head

But of course how would this living room be a living room with out that portrait?

Candy grabbed her bag and headed up the steps and down the hall to her old bedroom.

Except for the books and a few of the stuffed animals on the window seat and book shelves, the room was different now. It was white walled with dark blue linens on the queen size four posted bed that was now across from where their two beds once stood.

Above the bed was a big picture of a schooner on the ocean.

"Oh, Jonathan I think this place needs a woman's touch. It is like a big nautical man cave!" Candy laughed and shook her head.

Candy walked down the hall and pushed the door open that used to be her mother's room.

Well, has not changed much in here, Candy thought.

The room looked almost the same as it did when it was her mother's room. The room was clean and straight. Her mother's writing desk was no longer in the center of the room. One could walk straight to that the telescope.

Candy ran her finger across the top of the telescope.

Well, Captain Greg, I think you would be disappointed some with Jonathan with all this dust.

Candy wiped her hand on her pants, opened the balcony doors and walked out onto the balcony.

Candy, lost in her thoughts and leaning up against the ship's wheel, never saw Jonathan come through the gate.

"Candy! Where are you?" Jonathan called

Snapping out of her train of thought she wiped a tear away that was running down her face.

"Coming Jonathan."

Candy walks into the kitchen and was greeted with a big hug from her brother.

"Thanks for coming it really means a lot."

"Grab the pizza and let's go into the living room."

A little while later Jonathan was all sprawled out in his chair with his feet up with his hand behind his head.

Candy was laying on the couch staring at the picture over the mantel. "You know Jonathan he is not going to come back and haunt you if you remove that picture right?"

"I know but it keeps me company plus it is where it belongs." Jonathan said.

"Yea there is probably an outline of it on the wall. So I guess it is kind of stuck there now."

"No it is not. I painted this room a year or so again. I know there is no outline on the wall around that picture. But there was before I painted."

Candy started laughing, shaking her head.

They both just sat there soaking in the moment when Jonathan started laughing.

"What's so funny Jonathan?"

"I was just thinking of that one time when you wanted that boy Ryan to stay of for a weekend. What were you, around sixteen?"

"Yea I was around sixteen and Captain Gregg was having no part in it at all." She laughed shaking her head.

"It was not a big deal at all." Said Candy.

"That is not how I recall it. Captain Gregg hit the rough when you mentioned it to mom.

Well, he always blew up about everything."

"Candy you would have put the man in his grave if wasn't already dead with all the things you pulled."

Candy rolled her eyes and smirked at him.

Candy remembers that day pretty clearly.

Jonathan walks in his mother's bedroom to find his mother sitting in her chair with her head resting in one hand looking tired and Candy and Captain Gregg are standing face to face looking like there were about to have a stand off.

"What round are we one today?" Jonathan asked sarcastically.

Captain Gregg and Candy give him a look that says back off.

"Jonathan" said Carolyn

Jonathan held his hands up and said, "Okay! Sorry!"

"Now listen, Candy" says Captain Gregg …


End file.
